Kyuss Lives! are starting to crumble. Bassist Nick Oliveri has announced he’s exiting the legally fraught pseudo-reunion that’s already the target of a lawsuit by original members Josh Homme and Scott Reeder. In a video interview with Antiquiet, Oliveri explained the tour wasn’t what he’d signed up for — apparently he had been under the impression it was a chance to showcase each musician’s solo material. “Seeing John [Garcia] do it already with ‘Garcia Plays Kyuss’ at such a big level, [we thought], ‘Wow, man, we could actually reach some people with our solo stuff in a very honest way and play the tunes that we have mad respect and love for,’ ” he said. “I’m gonna bow out and do Mondo Generator, because that’s what we were supposed to be doing originally.”
Oliveri declined to get into the lawsuit Homme and Reeder have filed over the use of the Kyuss name, insisting, “I am friends with both sides, and I also disagree with both sides at the same time, so it’s a real weird place I’m in.” But he also said of Homme, “I could see where he’d be bummed out because he put a lot of care and a lot of time into Kyuss.” He also lamented, “When people sue each other, it guarantees those people will never play together in the same room together again.”
In a bit of good humor (and/or wise prognostication), Oliveri insinuated he was hitting the road before anyone asked him to do so. “I don’t wanna be fired from any band… again,” he said (he was infamously booted from Queens of the Stone Age in 2004). “I figure to walk away with my head up high and do my own thing is a respectable thing, and I think I need to do that.” Oliveri also needs to go to court to resolve the charges stemming from the bizarre SWAT-standoff that led to his arrest in July 2011.
If you have 19 minutes and an appreciation for beards, check out Antiquiet’s full interview:
